Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Harrison for President

The LCMS is blessed to have a large number of faithful men who would be capable of leading the Synod. The three men who will appear on the ballot for President of Synod at the end of this week are all long-time servants of the church, who would put their sincerest efforts into the position. Each is a man of faith who chose to enter the service of the Church even though his talents could have brought better pay and lower stress in the secular world. They all deserve our thanks.

It almost goes without saying that I support Rev. Harrison in his reelection and will be voting for him on June 11th (voting is open June 11-14). He recently spoke at one of our Gottesdienst conferences and has been a supporter of reverent worship for his entire career. So why bother with an endorsement like this in print? Two reasons.

First, I want to encourage like minded electors, pastoral and lay, to take the time to vote. If you've been paying attention to your inbox this week, you will know that they are efforts in various corners to support one of the other candidates. Every vote will count and there are 2700 fewer voters registered than there were in 2013. Apathy is always bad for the incumbent. Please vote!

Second, the most crucial topic at this convention is the resolution to fold the licensed lay deacon program into routes that lead to call and ordination. This is a pivotal issue. President Harrison supports it, along with both seminary faculties. Yet, the CSL seminary president, who is also on the ballot, does not publicly support his faculty in this regard. And the other man on the ballot has forthrightly and publicly opposed the plan to bring the LLD program to a godly conclusion.

The fact that Rev. Harrison stands with the seminary faculties in saying it's time to bring the LLD program to a close and thus bring the Synod's practice in line with AC XIV while the other two candidates oppose the plan, makes this election a referendum on AC XIV and the necessity of a call to the Office of the Ministry. 7300 pastors and laymen will have the opportunity to cast their ballot in this referendum at the end of this week. If you are an elector, I hope you will demonstrate your support for AC XIV by casting your ballot for Rev. Harrison.